I have a keuring on every level of the house. Love strong coffee and have found Costco’s bold to be quite good. These end up costing about $0.35 apiece. I love smelling the freshly brewing cup as I am taking my morning shower. ANd thee it is, waiting for me when I am done.
This is purely just FYI, but did you know that there is actually more caffeine in an 8 oz cup of coffee than there is in a shot of espresso?
If she likes espresso for the taste, then that’s a different story, but if she is doing it primarily for the caffeine, she would be better off going with coffee.
I gave up on Keurig. I’m not a daily coffee drinker, so the price isn’t an issue really but I like the Via instant coffee packs by Starbucks. They’re not cheap on a per cup basis but I really like the taste which is surprising for an instant coffee. I use an electric kettle for hot water and I’m good to go.
I’m not crazy about Via. We have used it as “emergency coffee” but wouldn’t drink it by choice.
Via costs 10x what you pay for a tablespoon of instant Folgers… and tastes the same to me.
If I were to pick Nespresso or Keurig for my college kid, I’d go with K - it costs less per cup than N, and if the kid is not picky about their coffee, why pay so much more for the better quality that would not be truly appreciated.
I also get Via free - I wouldn’t buy it.
To all those who have had a Keurig- if it stops working take it back. My daughter was given one for college from her grandmother, when it broke after three years she took it back to B,B & B. They replaced it for free.
One caveat - you mentioned your son likes a BIG cup of coffee in the morning - I am not an expert, and maybe there is another solution, but we have a Keurig at work and those cups only put out (IMO) a smallish cup of coffee. Most mugs these days are not tea cup size! - I don’t think the large setting is more than 10 or 12 ounces??? Correct me Keurig experts if I’m wrong. Drives me crazy that I can’t get a FULL cup of coffee out of one of those cups! (I just use a reusable/refillable cup.)
No Keurig here. We use a glass Chemex with filter paper and pour boiling water over the coffee. You don’t get any grounds.
That being said–you could pull it off in a dorm but it would require getting an electric tea kettle to boil water as well as the glass Chemex pot and filter. It takes time, but I was surprised at how many people in San Francisco stand in line at Blue Bottle coffee places where they use the pour over method. We don’t have that chain of coffee houses in MA.
If he just drinks coffee a personal coffee maker (drip kind) might be a more practical solution. I think there are brands with built in filters, so no need to buy - don’t know if that makes it harder to dump the grinds though. Target / Walmart for around $25-$50.
mommamocha,
Did she have to produce a receipt to return it?
In CA, some Starbucks stores also use the pourover method - if you ask for decaf or some blend they don’t feature as their daily drip coffees.
I think a freshman would benefit from the convenience of coffee from a pod: nothing to wash, no mess, nothing to pre-boil. 
Just an FYI. Eons ago, when we toured colleges, some dorms did not allow electric tea kettles in rooms. Make sure to check what’s allowed.
I used to drink a lot of coffee. I hesitated on a Keurig forever, read tons of reviews, obsessed, ran the math and couldn’t get over the cost per cup, cost per month. So, I stuck with the conventional coffee maker.
I realized a few things: for some time now, I’ve only been drinking two cups a day and hate reheating coffee that’s been sitting. And, all sorts of places I go, there seems to be a Keurig…and I like the ease and the coffee. All my friends with one swear they love them. So I checked for good prices and-
-today I bought a Mini Plus and a refillable gizmo. So, I have to refill the water reservoir, but what the hey.
refillable gizmo? The thing that you can put in your own coffee instead of using the pods? Trust me, you will get lazy and the pods will win. Some peple use the pods twice. I havent tried it. Has anyone here?
But I no longer care, for just two or so cups/day. Now that you dare me, I’ll have to try to use the gizmo often enough, ha.
Trust me, I did the obsessing. Even fussing over what if I have folks to dinner and need a pot. I’ll keep the old one for that. Also have carafes.
Btw, friend’s son was a Nespresso demonstrator for Williams Sonoma thru college, on commission. Made a tidy sum.
Oh, that is because this town dominated by hipsters wants a bit of show to justify the high prices charged by Blue Bottle. Granted, the results are pretty good when the selected coffees are of high quality. If the end result is better in a Chemex (or its better known cousin the Melitta pourover) or a French Press or an Italian inspired system remains to be seen. I think it would require a very experienced palate to see a difference between the Chemex and the Melitta filters, and the discussions about extraction and bitterness variances tend to be the domain of the alchemist … or pretenders. This said, any of the system discussed here ought to be better than the pure junk that is extracted by the Keurig system. Cheap but way overpriced coffee in pods that cannot be salvaged by the equally cheap system that lacks the extraction pressure of a Nespresso system. At best, it a step above the horrendous gas station coffee and below what you can get at McDonald’s or Dunkin.
Now, anyone who follows our friend Chad might have seen these pictures:
https://instagram.com/p/yywZF5gelq/?modal=true
https://instagram.com/p/yy0oFegepf/?modal=true
The pictures are from opening day of Blue Bottle in Tokyo. Tartine is due soon! Looks like the San Francisco bugs are going global! 
I would not get the Mini Keurig…having the water reservoir is important.
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And assuming money for the kcups isn't an issue....bc they run close to .50 each. <<<
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Not necessarily…both Sams club and Costco sell name-brands and their own brands for much cheaper.
^^
Yep. Kirkland at about 40 cents. And this stuff around 3 for 1 dollar:
Still Keurig!
Costco has K- cups and I think some of them are official Starbucks if @saintfan’s son wants that.
@fractalmstr, I think my D3 doesn’t really want a full cup of coffee so the little shot of espresso works best for her.
Yup. See post 40. I think I paid about $.35/ cup for the Kirkland Pacific bold . It’s good. Comes in boxes of 100 and 200 and the 100 was cheaper per pod! Go figure. They have other brands (Starbucks, Paul Newman, Dunkin donuts) which do frequently go on sale but are still more than the Kirkland brand. Have also ordered inexpensive ones like San Francisco brand on Amazon, and when you first buy the keurig you’ll get a coupon for coffee from their site which made the price reasonable. I also picked up a box of victor Allen’s french roast, 80 pods for $20. It’s not great, but the price was.